Systems for generating energy from sea waves are known that are based on utilisation of the buoyant forces that act on a floating body anchored or ballasted to the bottom of the sea. The working travel that the floating body carries out due to the action of the buoyant forces is used in order to obtain energy.
Such simple systems that harness energy by flotation nevertheless have the disadvantage that the travel used to harness power proportionally reduces the travel devoted to carrying out work. The capacity of buoyant generators is for this reason always limited by the dimensions of the floating body that are in their turn subject to the height, longitude and frequency per minute of the waves.
Energy generation systems that take advantage of buoyant forces are clean and simple systems, but are so far not very competitive, if account is taken of their necessary dimensions and low energy harnessing. These are techniques that require a marked increase in the harnessing and conversion of energy to make the installation profitable.
Spanish patent ES2224832 describes a system for multiple harnessing and complemented conversion of energy from sea waves that has the advantage over other systems that, in addition to harness energy due to the actual impulse of the waves on the floating body, it enables harnessing of energy due to the pressures of the water column on the captive air in a submerged tank, which is open at its base and moves in a direction opposite to that of the floating body.
In the system described in the aforesaid patent, the complemented action between the floating body and the submerged tank, an action that has its source in pressure changes of the captive air that the tank contains, due to changes in the water column that it supports, shows itself in a complemented conversion of energy. Said complemented conversion tends to increase the intensity of the force throughout the entire travel of the waves, in both the ascending and descending directions, so that the effective working travel of the floating body is increased and, with it, the energy harnessing capacity of the system.
However, the great inertia that has to be overcome by the movements of water produced by the submerged tank of the system of the aforesaid patent shows itself in large hydrodynamic losses that greatly reduce the capacity to increase energy harnessing. Said system therefore needs to be improved.